The Biz Buzz » John Gilliehttp://blog.thenewstribune.com/business
Get the most up-to-date news, insights and analysis of Tacoma, Pierce County and South Puget Sound business.Thu, 16 Jul 2015 21:18:40 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0Aerospace Summit set for Wednesday at Clover Park Technical Collegehttp://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/16/aerospace-summit-set-for-wednesday-at-clover-park-technical-college/
http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/16/aerospace-summit-set-for-wednesday-at-clover-park-technical-college/#commentsTue, 16 Jul 2013 22:36:09 +0000http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/?p=20323What are state and local governments and private businesses doing to ensure that Washington remains a hub of the aerospace industry?

Get a briefing Wednesday on that aerospace retention effort at Pierce County’s annual Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing Summit at the McGavick Center at Clover Park Technical College.

Alex Pietsch, director of the governor’s office of aerospace, is one of several speakers on the agenda. Pietsch will discuss Washington’s aerospace strategy and the Evergreen State’s recruitment efforts at the recent Paris Air Show.

Other speakers include: Dr. Amit Bandyopadhyay, professor at Washington State University’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. He will …

Alaska Airlines, which historically has provided air service to such ski towns as Sun Valley, Idaho, and Mammoth Lakes, Calif., and Kalispell, Mont., will add a Colorado ski destination to its route map for the first time this winter.

The SeaTac-based airline will begin new service between Sea-Tac Airport and Steamboat Springs/Hayden, Colo., this winter. The twice-weekly flights will operate from Dec. 18 through March 29, 2014. The flights will make the roundtrip to Steamboat Springs on Wednesdays and Saturdays during that period.

“This will be Alaska Airlines’ first Colorado ski destination, giving our customers in the Pacific Northwest the …

A Finnish multi-purpose ice-breaker that spent much of last weekend in Tacoma and at the entrance to Quartermaster Harbor off Vashon Island departed early Monday for Dutch Harbor in Alaska.

After a brief, early morning stop in Seattle, the MSV Nordica headed out the Strait of Juan de Fuca for the 49th State.

The bulbous-bowed, 381-foot-long vessel is contracted to Shell Offshore by Arctia Offshore Ltd. for use in exploration activities in the seas off the north coast of Alaska. The Nordica and its sister ship Fennica are part of a flotilla of ice-breakers, anchor-handling ships, supply vessels and tankers …

]]>http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/15/finnish-ice-breaker-departs-tacoma-area-for-alaska/feed/0Tacoma’s first new major hotel in eight years opens near UWThttp://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/11/tacomas-first-new-major-hotel-in-eight-years-opens-near-uwt/
http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/11/tacomas-first-new-major-hotel-in-eight-years-opens-near-uwt/#commentsThu, 11 Jul 2013 22:40:53 +0000http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/?p=20275

When Caroline Curtis and Vickie Molzer unlocked the front doors of the Holiday Inn Express Downtown Tacoma Thursday afternoon, that simple, unceremonious event marked the informal end of seven years of planning, negotiation and construction that brought Tacoma its newest major hotel.

First conceived in 2006, the hotel developed by Seattle-based Hotel Concepts, slogged its way through numerous city design reviews, architectural modifications and the sluggish economy to finally become reality at 1 p.m. Thursday.

Curtis, operations manager for hotel operator BMI Hospitality and Molzer, the hotel’s first general manager, did the honors, and the hotel received its first guests. …

SeaTac-based Alaska Air Group Thursday announced it will begin issuing a quarterly cash dividend next month.

The airline holding company will pay shareholder of record on Aug. 6 a 20-cent-per-share dividend on Aug. 22.

The holding company owns Alaska Airlines and its sister carrier, Horizon Air. The dividend will be in addition the multi-year stock repurchase program the airline company has initiated.

Wall Street analysts, noting the airlines’ growing pile of cash in recent quarters have repeatedly quizzed the airline when it will begin distributing that money to shareholders in the form of a dividend. Until Thursday, Alaska’s answer has …

With orders for the latest version of Boeing’s iconic 747 continuing to struggle, the company Thursday announced an order for two of the freighter version of the jumbo jet from Silk Way Airlines, a cargo carrier in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Boeing put the value of the two freighters at $704 million at list prices.

The 747-8 is the fifth generation of the 4-engine jumbo jet that debuted in the last ’60s. The 747-8 features new, fuel-efficient engines, an improved wing, an updated interior and electronics. Boeing has net orders for 105 of the planes. The company has sold just five of …

]]>http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/11/boeing-wins-rare-747-8-freighter-order/feed/0And Boeing’s featured airline of the month is — Asiana Airlineshttp://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/10/and-boeings-featured-airline-of-the-month-is-asiana-airlines/
http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/2013/07/10/and-boeings-featured-airline-of-the-month-is-asiana-airlines/#commentsWed, 10 Jul 2013 20:20:28 +0000http://blog.thenewstribune.com/business/?p=20226Of the dozens of airlines that Boeing counts as its faithful customers, which did the company single out for accolades in the July issue of its slick Frontiers magazine?

You’d be right if you said Asiana Airlines, the airline whose Flight 214, a Boeing 777, crashed at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday while attempting to land. Two passengers died.

Boeing had picked Asiana for its July customer profile weeks before the accident. The magazine was distributed July 1 through July 5.

If the ties that bind Boeing and Asiana weren’t public enough before the landing incident, they are now …

A container ship longer and wider than a Navy aircraft carrier called at the Port of Tacoma’s Washington United Terminal Wednesday setting a new record for vessel size at the port.

The Zim Djibouti has a capacity of 10,000 container units, about 40 percent larger than the typical container vessel that calls on port terminals.

Before the Wednesday morning trip by the Zim Djibouti up the Blair Waterway, the largest container ship to call at the port had a capacity of 8,500 container units, said Tara Mattina, the port’s communications director.